Expression of involucrin, loricrin and keratin 2e in the epidermis of three kinds of ichthyosis

Abstract

Objective To compare expressions of involucrin, loricrin and K2e in patients with KPI, IV and LI to health controls, and analyse whether there is a relationship between the degree of hyperkeratosis and these proteins. Methods Expressions of involucrin, loricin and K2e in the epidermis of three groups were detected by immunohistochemical semiquantitative analysis with normal people as the control. Then data was analyzed statistical differences all. Results There were differences among these three proteins. These results of comparison between two groups by Bonferroni method were as follows: the PU value of involucrin positive cells: IV (0.221±0.012) was higher than that of normal control (0.144±0.011), followed by LI (0.128±0.008), KPI (0.113±0.008) was the lowest, with a statistically significant difference (P0.05). Conclusions There were differences of expression of involucrin, loricrin and K2e among KPI, IV and LI patients. The degree of keratinization of IV is the lightest among them, while KPI is the most serious, which may be related to the difference in the compensatory increase of the above proteins.

Keywords

• keratinopathic ichthyoses
• ichthyosis vulgaris
• lamellar ichthyosis
• involucrin
• loricrin
• keratin 2e